


from a whispered start

by misskatieleigh



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-24
Updated: 2008-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 19:47:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskatieleigh/pseuds/misskatieleigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some days, Rodney thinks that he might have figured John out. They are few and far between, rare instances where his brain <i>clicksshiftswhirs</i> just right and there – there, he’s got it. As a general rule, not five seconds pass before he slips right back into the dark and John is a mystery again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	from a whispered start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unamaga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unamaga/gifts).



> moving old stuff from LJ, sorry if you read this ages ago.

 

John’s hair goes against all the laws of physics.

5 AM, 3PM, chased by Wraith, Genii, random natives of planet P7X-285 armed with pointed torture devices – that hair stands up, defiance wrapped around the fiber of each strand – strength, loyalty, thesecolorsdontrun, bleed for you die for you, American cockiness spun into the random pattern of spike and swirl.

He doesn’t get it.

Rodney’s own hair is a disappointment, thinning by the time he graduated high school (valedictorian, thankyouverymuch), non-cooperative, non-compelling strands of nothing that only serve to keep his head warm, in the barest sense. But John touches his hair, fingertips soft or strong against his scalp, brushing sweatblood _fear_ away and it doesn’t matter.

He gets it then.

*

John is connected to Atlantis on a level that no one really comprehends.

She lights up for him, flies for him, cradles and protects and reacts to him in a way that is replicated in the touch of hundreds, but dimmed to the barest flicker against the bonfire of her reaction to him. Rodney thinks, often, that the only reason they survive is because of John, because Atlantis wants him almost as much as Rodney does.

He isn’t wrong, but it doesn’t matter. Whatever keeps them (John) alive.

*

John’s desire to fly stands in exact contrast with Rodney’s desire to keep both feet on firm ground.

John’s a flyboy, has the drug of adrenaline hard wired into his blood stream every time he flies - thinks about, comes near - a plane or anything else that could possibly fall out of the sky. It terrifies Rodney to think about that, to think that the only thing keeping them from plummeting is the force of air holding them up, the force of John’s mind.

Rodney is very protective of John’s mind. He kind of wants it to stick around for a bit, preferably attached to John’s body.

*

John likes him.

No, really. John actually likes him. Likes the frantic, manic, messy, possibly insane along with brilliant annoyance that most people brush off with the first insult flung in their direction. Rodney gets that he isn’t worth the time, the only part of him worth keeping around is his brain and luckily he’s the only one smart enough to develop the holding tank for that valued piece of anatomy and he’s not too keen on the prospect of disembodying himself just to save some moronic scientists from a bit of criticism.

Besides, somehow John likes him this way, smiles when he starts ranting about this and that, actually follows the conversation when his hands take over and start swinging around in an effort to get his point across. John just reaches out, takes hold of his hands and steadies him.

It doesn’t matter then that he doesn’t understand John. Then his brain can narrow down to this moment, focus on the press of mouth and tongue and skin and reasonable explanations don’t matter.

This moment, strung along to the next and the next – that’s all that matters.


End file.
